SPEECH BY GEOFF SCOTT (CEO)

Intervention Rollback Action Group Protest to mark the 2^nd Anniversary of the National Apology.

Alice Springs, NT

February 13, 2010
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I would like and must acknowledge the land and the people on whose country we are gathered today and pay my respects to your elders.

My Name is Geoff Scott and I am the CEO of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council.

Thank you for the opportunity to join you all here today, and for allowing me to speak, I bring to you the message of support from your brothers and sisters in the south from New South Wales and specifically from the New South Wales Aboriginal land Council.

You should know that we have not forgotten you, and we shall never abandon you.

Disunity is our downfall we must be and remain united, if not the efforts of those who seek our submission shall be all the easier.

I am a Wiradjuri man from central NSW and bring the support and the feelings of distress for what is happening here from my own people. We feel and share your pain.

We are here today to talk about the Northern Territory Intervention and the apology, but also must talk about the environment that has allowed this assault on common decency to be established and to persist.

All governments - past and present, state, territory and commonwealth - have formed the view supported by "some" Aboriginal people to reduce us to the status of beggars in own land as a prerequisite for receiving assistance, and in most cases forced to receive assistance under the terms we don't want.

This not a situation that any fair-minded person, any clear thinking and compassionate Australian could support.  

But our government, our media and some of our own would have us think so.

I can only hope that is not the view of Australia, if is then we as a society is lost.

I prefer to see Australians in the main as misinformed as living in a climate of fear and misinformation, constructed by government, to blame these who have less then themselves for their problems, whilst allowing the big end of town to continue the rape and pillaging of our country.

It is an abomination and will be an enduring stain on the history of the relationship between Australia and aboriginal people

There are many who characterize people who dare to speak out and say that the NT Intervention is failing and wrong as part of the problem. They are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution. And the government's refusal to listen to those voices is racist and bigoted. 

The intervention is lazy and immature response by government developed by zealots who put their own and their political interest first and relegates aboriginal people to the being political commodity, to be played with and used for cheap and political ends.

And to all gathered here today who are showing the strength and concern for those people who are subject to this latest example of political tyranny, you will be classified as not caring and radical. Well, standing up for the rights of people and especially aboriginal people will always be greeted with hostility and derision. 

A major point on the Intervention that is as true here as it is anywhere in the country and we must promote and support that if there are people who are doing the wrong thing, harming others or mismanaging, then they must be dealt with swiftly and decisively, that is something we must all support.

We are truly at the crossroads.

The Rudd Government did not have to do much to be better then the Howard government. They apologised, and have milked that event shamelessly, but on balance the best analogy one could offer is that the Rudd government started well, then tripped and fell.

They must be accountable, they must be called to account.

The people many of who are here with us today continue to speak and take action, these are people who keep faith with the ideals of a fair minded and democratic society, possessing a social conscience required of us all. These are the people who we must support and give a voice to. Without them, many others will suffer. They are the leaders we should listen to.

Together we maintain the rage. Never forget who was silent, and never forget who advocated for the bad aspects intervention, never forget those who seek to silence and humiliate those who have a different view and ignore the needless sufferings of the innocent.

The new shiny Social Justice Commissioner thinks the intervention is fine and all we need is more data. Shame on him.

Our Aboriginal politicians think the intervention is fine. Shame on them.

We cannot trust public servants. They cannot be trusted.

If government's continue to ignore our voices and our rights, we will keep taking our fight to the international arena and shame Australia there. The United nations is the only place our voice is heard. The rest of the world  knows what is happening is  appalled by it. It has called on Australia to stop and fix it, but still our politicians are turning a deaf ear to the calls for commonsense, for justice and for humanity to prevail.

But here in our own country, on Aboriginal land, the silence is deafening from the human rights and justice bodies. It may be that aboriginal people are not sufficiently important in their eyes to warrant support. Shame on them. 

But we should note that Amnesty Australia has recently taken up the plight of Aboriginal people affected by the NTER they should also be applauded, but for the rest their collective silence too, is something we should not ignore but view with extreme concern.

We must call on the government and the people of Australia to hear the demand for justice,

• Reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act without qualification
• Remove the income quarantining
• Give control and respect back to the aboriginal people of this land
• Admit that their "intervention has and is failing.

To all here and the supporters who could not be, and must of all to the people are subject to this regime we are thinking of you and share your pain, keep your head high and remain strong.

Thank you.